The Skull

It's a story of five missionaries and their wives going to the Alca Indians of Ecuador to preach the gospel to a tribe. The Alca Indians that had never heard before and this was a violent people group.

They were known for spearing one another and spearing any opposition. Death for them was commonplace. Killing was commonplace. At the end of the movie one of the most interesting scenes takes place where they actually show a Converted Alca Indian who's now a Christian.

Alca meant savage it was a pejorative term that was used by other Indian tribes of this particular tribe. But now he's been converted to Christianity and he flies from Ecuador with one of the missionaries I think it's the son of Nate Saint and arrives in America.

And they have actual video footage of him encountering things for the first time and his reactions to those things. He goes into a grocery store and he is overwhelmed to see that there are shelves stocked full of food and He sees that you can take whatever you want and put it in your cart and then you go to the front and all you have to do is give them just a little card and Guess what?

They even give that back to you and You can take whatever you want and if you don't feel like getting out of your car that day you there's little windows that you can drive up to and They'll just hand you food right into the window of your car.

And all you have to do again is give them a little card. They'll take that for a second, but they'll give that back to you anyway and take whatever food you want. That was his perception of America. It's interesting because he comes from a very different culture, but see we're born in this culture and Our expectations are shaped by our experiences which are not normal for the history of the world for the history of Christianity.

The Cost of Following Christ in Mission

Those five missionaries who went to Ecuador Laid down their lives for the gospel when you hear the names Jim Elliot Nate Saint Pete Fleming Ed McCulley. Roger you Darian. Do you think of people that lost?

Something. Do you think They missed out on the American dream. They left it all behind and they missed what they could have had. See Jim Elliot Summarizes something before he went to the mission field.

Write this down. It's one of the greatest quotes of all time. Before Jim Elliot went to the mission field he knew. What cross he was likely to bear? Because you don't go to the Alka Indians with the expectation That it will be safe.

He wrote this in his journal commenting on Luke 16. Jim Elliot says he is no fool Who gives what he cannot keep? To gain what he cannot lose. Say that again. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

The Title: The Skull

The title of my message today is the skull pleasant, huh?